Ten minutes later we left the cave, giving one of the spare talismans to our guide and the rest to the queen after teaching her how to use them, only taking the partially depleted spirit stones with us. That should allow her people to move through the caves more easily. With the background level of qi as high as it is here the stones would be refilled in no time, likely going over their previous level, though I wasn’t sure if they could handle the full one hundred times the energy that they could charge to due to their quality. We may need to store them before they reach that point so that they don’t break apart.
Once we were out of the cave, Mo Shingua, the only girl in our group, a middle level one seventeen year old, stopped us. “Good, now that we are out in the open, I think our friend here needs to put on some clothes.” The others looked at her confused but she returned an indignant scowl. “You boys aren’t seriously expecting a girl to run around naked in public, are you?”
“She’s probably never worn clothing.” said Chu Van. “Why does she need to do so now?”
“Just because her clan is nudists doesn’t mean that you get to see her naked any time you want!” Shingua said angrily.
Chu Van sighed. “Fine, give her some clothes, then.”
“Once you guys turn around.” she responded, and the others rolled their eyes before doing so.
A few seconds later Shingua spoke up again. “Uh, can one of you translate? I haven’t actually learned telepathy yet.”
I sighed, walked over, and sat down with my back to them. ‘I’ll connect the two of you so you can speak.’ I said telepathically, then did so. ‘It might take some practice for you to learn it, Shingua,’ I said, using my image of her instead of a name, as we were communicating in concepts, ‘but think of it like reading a jade slip. You did learn the Jade Memory Transfer technique, right?’
She nodded, and I sensed agreement through the link. ‘Yes. I help Master Cage in the library, so he made me use it and the Layered reading slips.’
‘Your master is a trap?’ said the rat-woman, confused.
‘No, his name in his original language is just the word for an object used to contain captured creatures, and he started using that word for his Dao name.’
‘Dao name?’ she asked.
‘Yes, it’s a special name that describes who you are. You have names in your clan, right?’
‘Some of us do. My sister is named Glorious Protector, because she saved us from a pack of wild cats, having her leg injured in the process. I do not have one though.’
Shingua nodded. ‘Then I’ll give you one. How about…’ she paused for a few seconds to think.
‘What about ‘Rat Princess’? It would be pronounced “Shu Gongzhu” in one of the languages of my homeland.’ I knew enough mandarin for simple phrases and it seemed to fit the situation, so I sent the sound over the link, something which was considerably harder due to the need to convert each sound into a concept of vocal cord and mouth movements.
“Shu Gongzhu” said Shingua out loud. “I like it.” ‘I like it.’ she echoed over the link and the rat woman nodded.
‘Very well, my name shall be Rat Princess, as it describes me well.’ After that Shingua removed a robe from her bag and handed it to Shu Gongzhu, then taught her how to put it on. It was very loose at first, but with the injection of a bit of qi it shrank to match its wearer, an enchantment similar to the shrinking technique but which only worked to the item using it.
‘So’ I said after she was dressed. ‘Do you mind teaching her how to use the memory transfer technique?” I asked Shingua, then pulled out a jade slip. This one included the local language of the Black Dragon Mountain region, something I didn’t think the sect would need and therefore didn’t loan them. ‘This will teach her to understand our speech, that way those that can’t use telepathy can still speak with her.’
Shingua took the jade. ‘Sure, I can do so.’ Shu Gongzhu quickly spoke with Chu Van to see where he wanted to go, then gave him directions to the cave of the cats that had attacked the Rat clan. We sat off in that direction, Chu Van hoping to catch some cat spirit beasts for the sect, and Shu and Shingua walked behind the group, Shingua slowly teaching her to use the technique.
An hour later, the journey being slowed by the disciples picking even more spirit herbs, this time even gathering a few level two herbs, we started to hear laughing and the calls of birds in pain ahead. Chu called for everyone to stop gathering herbs and we ran forward. About a half of a li ahead, in the edge of the forest, a group of black hyenas were cackling while playing with something on the ground. As we approached, though, they stopped and turned around, then took a few menacing steps towards us.
‘Why do you disturb our fun, ape?’ asked one of them, and the others laughed at us, expecting us to be intimidated. After all, their group was slightly smaller than ours at only twenty seven members instead of our thirty four, but they had two level three members, where we only had Shu, someone who didn’t seem like the fighting type.
‘We heard birds in pain and were curious.’ Chu Van responded so that everyone could hear.
‘Curious apes.’ said the first hyena. ‘Now that’s something new. I’ve never heard of a curious ape before.’ The others laughed loudly at his joke, making it obvious that it was some sort of racist stereotype. ‘I wonder what they taste like?’ The others somehow laughed even more at this.
‘Wait.’ said the lead hyena, a late level three instead of the early level three that was speaking before. The others stopped laughing. ‘Something is special about these apes. I have seen their rat pet before. Even eaten a few when I was desperate. But these apes look special.’ I felt a wave of qi wash over us. ‘Only level two but able to speak so well. And with no hint of a legendary bloodline. Tell me, humans, have you come to enslave and plunder us like the other humans did before?’
Chu Van looked surprised. ‘There were other humans before?’
The hyenas laughed at this. ‘Of course their were. My sire’s sire told me how they came when he was a pup, kidnapping his clan members, mostly the females, after killing most of the males. His brother was even taken by them.’
I noticed a few feathers scattered around, and reached out to catch one as it floated towards me. The second it touched my palm a shock went through me like I touched an electric fence. The birds must be Lightning type.
‘Only if you attack us first.’ Chu Van said, and the leader laughed a bit at that.
‘You are fair, only taking your fallen enemies captive. Very well, we will leave you alone. We’ve had our fun here anyway.’ Some of the other hyenas laughed a bit at this. With that he turned around and ran off into the darkness of the forest, disappearing as soon as he reach a shadowy area. The rest of the hyenas followed him and soon we were alone.
On the ground in front of us were dozens of small birds with yellow lines down their backs. “Check to see if any are still alive.” said Chu. “But be careful. These are Lightning Sparrows. They can shock you, and even stop your heart if they get lucky.” We spread out and I brought my dragonfly out of my beast bag, connecting to its eyesight and ordering it to look for signs of life. It seemed to have the ability to sense life signs, something that I hadn’t noticed before, so it was able to quickly sort the birds into dead and not-dead-yet.
After I told the others which ones I had found that still had life in them I went fifty meters ahead where the dragon fly had detected one that was off by itself. It appeared to have tried running away, only to be caught. It was young, though, barely old enough to fly, so it hadn’t been able to fly fast enough, even if this race was known for their speed. As I approached I had the dragonfly land nearby so that I could get a better look at it, only using my left eye to share vision. I saw a slight movement, then got a brief flash of pain as both the shared eyesight and the mental connection disappeared.
I ran over and saw the tiny sparrow trying to swallow the dragonfly, and picked it up. It had a broken left wing and was bleeding on its left side, but looked like it might survive. I quickly took out a small bowl, scraped some bone, muscle, tendon, and skin pills into it, then added a little bit of water to the pill dust. I put the little birds mouth beside the water and it started to drink. It seemed to realize that the water was healing it, because it quickly started drinking all that it could then, when it was full, splashing itself with what was left.
I hadn’t studied any techniques for healing others, but I was able to use Taking Pulse on it to determine that its wing was slowly healing but that it had some internal injuries I hadn’t caught before. I scraped both types of organ pillss into the water and let it play in the water a bit more. The medicine wouldn’t work as well if it was absorbed through the skin, other than the skin healing pill, but after a minute the bird’s injuries appeared to be healing.
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I took it out of the water and used a bit of fire qi to dry it off and warm it before going over to one of the other birds and letting it drink what was left of the water. The remaining medicinal effects helped it as well, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough, so I spoke up. “I have level one healing pills. If anyone wants to scrape some into some water and let the birds drink, you can come get some.” I put the tiny bird in the top of my robe and made some more medicinal water in the bowl, also mixing in a blood pill, then let the bird in front of me drink some more. Chu Van came over and took the slightly used pills, crushing all of them into a large bowl then pouring in some water, and gave any of the of the disciples that wanted some a bit of the medicinal soup.
Soon we had returned most of the flock of sparrows to reasonable health, but it would still take them a while to fully recover. I put the larger bird I helped into my beast bag, then started petting the baby bird. It was asleep, but seemed to be sleeping peacefully. “Thanks for giving us the medicine back there.” said Chu Van. “We wouldn’t have been able to save most of them without it. Pills are just normally too expensive to use like that.”
“Those are initial and low grade ones my friend gave me before I left home. I can’t sell them due to the quality, but I got them for free, so I don’t mind giving them away.” He nodded. “One more thing.” I said. “The way the hyenas left is suspicious. I suspect that they intend to ambush us later.”
“I thought the same thing. I’ll tell the others to keep an eye open.”
I nodded. “So, we’ve been in this realm for about eight hours now.” I said, and he nodded. “Should we take a break? Maybe eat something? If nothing else, some of the birds might wake up if we wait.”
He thought about it and nodded. “We can stop for a meal, but I don’t like this location. With how those hyenas disappeared into the shadows, they are likely Shadow Hyenas. We would be safer from them if we went out onto the plane, as it it harder for them to hide out there due to not being able to use their powers. Also, I want to be fully rested when we reach the cats.”
I nodded. “Then lets head out about one hundred meters past the tree line. That’s close enough that we can still see into the forest, but far enough away that they can’t use the shadow to ambush us.” Chu Van nodded and ordered us to head out into the field before we took a break. Many of the people here started collecting the corpses of the dead birds, and when they were finished a minute later we changed locations.
Once we found a location for a camp the disciples picked all of the spirit herbs within five meters of the fire and we stomped down what was left behind, creating a circle ten meters across. While we would be starting a fire in the middle of a grass land, we would be careful to watch the fire to make sure it didn’t spread. Chu chose one disciple to dig a pit for the fire and after he was done filled it with sticks and what dried grass he could find. Once he was finished he asked me to start it, as I had a fire root. I sent a burst of qi into it and ignited the grass, which in turn ignited the sticks. The fire didn’t blaze up like it should, though.
I suspected that it wasn’t getting enough air flow, so I dug a smaller pit by hand beside it, then connected them at the bottom, what on earth was commonly called a Dakota Fire hole, after the Dakota Native American tribe that was believed to be the origin of the idea. I had no idea if that was true, but as soon as the fire had an additional source of air at the bottom of the hole it started burning more quickly and cleanly than before. I told Chu Van what I had done, calling it a ‘double fire hole’ instead, and he thanked me, then ordered Shingua over to cook for them.
At first I thought it was some form of chauvinism, expecting the woman to cook, but her skills quickly revealed that she was actually cultivating the Chef technique as well. Shu Gongzhu seemed interested in how we cooked our food, her people never really developing the art of cooking due to a limited supply of food, both in quantity and quality. One doesn’t worry about making the food good when one barely has enough to eat. Two of the other disciples also came over to help, one of them butchering one of the lightning sparrows we had just found, and I started patrolling around the field, looking out for any threats. Other than a few rodents, mostly moles and rabbits, and a variety of insects, I didn’t see any movement before the food was cooked.
As I approached the cook pot to get some of the soup, the little bird started to wake up. I quickly took its pulse and realized that, while it was mostly recovered, it had already completely digested the dragon fly. Realizing that I couldn’t feed it the soup as one of its own clan was the main ingredient, I tried to put a barrier around a large cricket, though it would be more accurate to refer to it as a cicada based on its size. The cricket dodged my trap multiple times as the bird watched me try and fail. The fourth time, however, I managed to catch its rear half, then quickly wrap the barrier around its front.
“Level two, huh?” I said, noticing that it had impressive qi pressure for a creature its size. I moved the barrier up to rest on my fingers, then sat the little bird on my palm. When I was sure that it wanted to eat the cricket I released the barrier and the bird leaped forward, catching the cricket just as it left my finger tips, then flapping its wings to land on the ground safely. Its left wing was still a bit sensitive, but with the addition of an early level two cricket to its diet I was certain that it would heal quickly.
I knelt and held out my hand and the bird hopped back onto my palm, then we returned to the camp as it finished its meal. I sat it on my shoulder and got my soup, then sat down to eat it. It seemed that Shingua had added some of the level one herbs from the field to it to improve its effects and taste, as it was extremely good soup. As I ate I noticed a warm feeling going through me that was more than just the effect of the soup’s heat. It was like something was refining my body as I ate, and soon I noticed that several of the seeds inside of me had changed slightly. The ones in my tendons and muscles had altered slightly, making it so that they could respond faster. The ones in my nerves and the reaction and perception sections within my brain had also been enhanced to an even greater degree while the qi within the soup slightly worked to make minor improvements to my reaction time. I could now react even faster than when I sat down, if only by a few milliseconds.
When I finished the bowl I closed my eyes and studied the changes to the seed. They were definitely useful, but far too small for my taste. I could ask for another bowl of soup, but that wasn’t likely to improve the quality of the seed by much. It was much like taking part of a pill. The fully detailed effect was there, it just wasn’t strong enough to do very much. What I needed to do was improve the power of this seed. When I looked at my seeds I noticed that there were nine different effects that I hadn’t purposefully placed there, most likely from the various foods I had consumed while with the sect, but none of them were very powerful other than the speed and reaction speed boosts from the Lightning Sparrow.
I studied the changes to the seed in as much detail as possible, then started reinforcing the new effects as much as I could. This was essentially giving me nine new ways to alter my body that I hadn’t used before, and it took me over thirty minutes to finish the enhancement. With the seeds the quality that they were now, I knew that when I next drew in the tribulation lightning I would see massive changes, greatly enhancing my performance. I just didn’t know how big the changes would be.
I heard someone walk behind me as I was double-checking the seeds, fixing the few errors I had made in improving the seeds. “Time to go.” said Chu Van.
I finished the seed I was working on, then ended my meditation and stood up. “Interesting. That meal pushed you to peak level two.” I checked again and realized that there was, in fact, higher densities of liquid qi in my veins and nerves, forming tiny vapor drops at some points where the flow was slightly restricted.
“Barely,” I said. “When we next stop for a break I’ll finish the process. Hopefully when we leave the hidden realm I will be ready to break through to level three.”
Chu Van nodded. “I wish I was that lucky. The soup definitely helped my movement speed and reflexes, making me a slight amount better in both areas, but it didn’t really improve my level any.”
I nodded. “Well, this realm does have about ten times the qi as Ilarya, so you should try meditating the next time we take a break. The better density should improve your cultivation speed by almost a factor of ten and if you have any bottlenecks occurring it could help you power through.”
He nodded. “It’s a little weird to hear someone use the proper name for our realm but since we are in another, I suppose it makes sense. I might try to follow your advise. I’ll probably have us take a four hour rest in another eight hours, so that we can sleep if we need to, and I should have the time then.” I nodded, then knelt down and whistled. The tiny sparrow looked at me and, seeing that I was bending over, flew over and landed on my palm. “You already have a great relationship with that bird.” said Chu. “Are you going to contract with it? A bond like that before bonding is hard to come by. It must already trust you.”
I nodded. “I was considering it, but was also thinking about giving it to my dao companion when I got home. I think she would like a pet.”
Chu shrugged. “With as strong as your bond to this creature is, it would be a shame to give it to another, even your dao companion. What if you give her one of the cats we are about to fight? They should be pretty good as pets.”
I nodded. “That could work. She does like cats. Any idea what kind they are?”
Chu shook his head. “No idea.” He called to Shu Gongzha over and asked her about the cats. As far as she knew they were large, far bigger than a hyena, and fast. The rat clan had tried to set traps for them but they would just run through them, the trap not closing fast enough to catch or injure them. The rat clan could do nothing to stop them, and they only left after they had eaten or caught enough rats. She did know one thing about them, though. They were bright. When we first attacked with light talismans she thought that the light cats were attacking again, but then realized that our lights weren’t bright enough.
Chu Van thanked her for the information, then let her return to her studies. Shingua had started teaching her many things, even though a proper master student relationship would have the middle level three teaching the level one girl.
While Chu thought over the possible enemies we might be facing I offered the little bird a companion contract. It immediately accepted, then jumped onto my shoulder and started rubbing against my face to show affection. I felt a bit of qi flow into me through the link, but this qi also carried the marks of a cultivation seed. Apparently it was trying to help me get stronger, but as it was only middle rank one it couldn’t do much. I thanked it through the bond, then took the tiny amount of qi and examined it as we walked. It was much like the seeds I had gotten from the other member of its clan by eating it, but something seemed off about it. Despite the fact that Shingua had boiled a level two bird, this seed seemed stronger in every aspect. I assumed that she had lost some of the seed when preparing it, as this had qualities that the other didn’t. For example, this had a way to improve the conductivity of my nerves, greatly improving my entire nervous system and brain. It also had a part I didn’t quite understand but seemed to have qualities similar to a flight technique. This was quite unusual. For now I sent it into my nervous system’s seed to help optimize the nerve conductivity. When we rested I might be able to study it more, but for now I needed to concentrate on keeping us safe.
